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Japan’s dealer prices of carbon steel hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets have both gained Yen 1,000/tonne ($10/t) on month due to the tightening in supply from the distributors, and buyers were forced to pay more to secure deliveries, according to sources in Tokyo and Nagoya in central Japan.
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Toyota Motor, Japan’s largest automaker, has informed its auto component suppliers that it will keep domestic vehicle production at above 13,000 units/day until February, industry sources in Nagoya and Tokyo said on Wednesday. The projected daily rate will be slightly lower compared with previous months, but the level remains high overall, meaning that steel consumption by the company and its vast network of components suppliers will likely stay firm, they said.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, has restarted a banked blast furnace located in the Kimitsu Area of its East Nippon Works in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, to respond to improving steel demand from consumers, especially auto makers.
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Japan’s crude steel production in October including both carbon and special steel declined by 11.7% on year to some 7.2 million tonnes, making for the eighth consecutive monthly on-year decrease, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on November 24.
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The annual information exchange between steel industry officials in Japan and Taiwan held recently identified no major outstanding issues. “Steel trade between Taiwan and Japan is currently smooth,” an official from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) commented on Tuesday. In previous years, Japanese exports of heavy sections had been a source of friction, but those tensions have eased, Mysteel Global understands.
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In a regular meeting of the State Council on November 18, China’s central government issued a clear signal that it intends to strongly lift domestic consumption of automobiles and home appliances. Chinese steel market sources believe that Beijing’s declaration of support for both sectors will help boost demand for flat steel and in turn, give their prices – already at highs for the year – another fillip.
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Japan’s all kinds of steel exports for October fell 13% on year to about 2.47 million tonnes, or the sixth consecutive month posting an on-year decline, mainly as the Japanese integrated mills had been prioritizing supplies to domestic customers, Mysteel Global understood from the preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on November 18.
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Kyoei Steel, Japan’s largest rebar producer, has decided to lift its rebar prices by Yen 3,000/tonne ($29/t) for December sales, mainly to reflect higher scrap prices and to secure sufficient steel margins for steady operations, the company announced on November 17.
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China’s economy has been improving steadily and despite uncertainties facing the global market, the government is confident about maintaining the consistent recovery and realizing the country’s development targets for 2020 by relying on its internal strength, Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), shared at a press conference on November 16.
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Japan’s sales of carbon steel products for both the domestic market and export in September rose 5.6% on year to about 5.23 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on November 16. “A clear recovery in sales has finally appeared,” a JISF official commented.
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China’s fixed asset investments (FAI) both overall and in the property market specifically, accelerated to last month, growing by 1.8% and 6.3% respectively over January-October, with the former 1 percentage point higher and the latter 0.7 percentage points higher than those for the first nine months, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, expects to sell only about 620,000 tonnes of carbon and special steel seamless pipes during the current fiscal (April 2020-March 2021), down 36.1% on year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought oil and gas development projects in many countries to a halt.
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Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japan’s leading electric-arc-furnace producer, is adding Yen 2,000/t ($19/t) to the list prices of all its finished carbon steel products for December sales to pass on higher input costs. The mini-mill last Thursday raised its scrap buying prices by Yen 500/t to Yen 1,500/t for all grades at all its facilities, a move Mysteel Global predicted was a likely precursor to it raising product prices for December sales.
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Altogether 15 countries including 13 in Asia and Australia and New Zealand signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on November 15 via a virtual conference, which has created the world’s largest free trade bloc and has been great news in general to the commodities market sources, Mysteel Global noted.
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China's fixed asset investment grew 1.8% on year over January-October, or 1 percentage point higher than that for the first three quarters, among which, the funding in the property grew 6.3% on year or 0.7 percentage point higher than the gain over January-September, according to the latest release by the
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Japan’s core machinery orders from domestic users excluding shipbuilders and power equipment makers during the current quarter are forecast to drop by 1.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the July-September period to Yen 2.18 trillion ($20.78 billion), according to a release from the Japanese government’s Cabinet Office on November 12. The decline would make for the sixth consecutive on-quarter decline, the statement noted.
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Japan’s ship plate consumption may decline further, as the new orders received by the Japanese shipbuilders in October fell further, down 21.7% on month or 11.9% lower on year to 735,450 gross tonnes or in 14 vessels, according to new data released by the Japan Ship Exporters’ Association (JSEA) on November 11.
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China’s gross domestic product (GDP) may grow 2% on year for the whole 2020 should the growth for the fourth quarter approximate 6.1% on the condition that “favourable factors will outweigh the adverse ones”, Meng Chun, researcher from China’s Development Research Center of the State Council shared at the 2020 National Steel Scrap Conference on November 12 in Haikou, South China’s Hainan.
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Japan’s crude steel output including both carbon and special steel is estimated to grow to about 21.8 million tonnes over October-December, or up 14.9% on quarter, according to a release by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on November 10, indicating the continuing demand improvement.
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JFE Steel, Japan’s second largest integrated mill, will start relining the No.6 blast furnace at the Chiba area of its East Japan Works much sooner than the mill had initially scheduled, saying that by starting the work early it can start cutting production costs sooner, JFE announced on November 9.
